Saultites In Out Of Town Bands Profile: Cross Dog

I'm sorry for this being a day late (I'm spreading out posts a bit due to the slow stretch we're in), but here's this month's last feature post, our Saultites In Out Of Town Bands Profile! As usual, posts in this series look at a band that is based out of town, but does/used to feature one or more Sault Ste. Marie-area residents (past or present) in their lineup, basically to give the band some deserved local exposure! This month's selection is to time in with their local debut in two weeks, and there's a very familiar face within, so read on below for this month's profile, and if something's missing, let me know! (Updated on November 27th, 2014)
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Cross Dog (Peterborough, Ontario)

Lineup: (Saultites in RED)

Tracy Aᵴhenden (vocals)
Mark Rand (bass)
Mikey Reid (drums)

Official Facebook page: http://facebook.com/crossdog
Official Bandcamp page: http://crossdog.bandcamp.com
Official Twitter page: http://twitter.com/crossdog666

Local Info: Cross Dog is the newest project from prolific Sault Ontario native Mark Rand (a.k.a. Marky Lion), who's played in various hard rock, punk, and hardcore project both locally and in Southern Ontario for many years! You may best remember him recently as Lion Ride's rhythm guitarist from 2007-2012, but he's also had roles as guitarist, bassist, and occasional singer with bands like Detroit, Bin Hawdon & The Taliband, The Merves, Fuller, hackthemodem, Pumpkinseed, The Lumbermen, Kidshit, Bondar, DDPBB, and The Mark Rand Band in the past decade, along with leading at least two solo projects. Though now living in Peterborough, he's still seen fairly often in the Soo for concerts!

Band Bio: Though quietly launched last year, Cross Dog first appeared with public online pages this spring, and they recorded their debut self-titled album this year as well, releasing it last month. The band made their live debut in Peterborough on July 6th alongside The Saigon Hookers, and have since played at and scheduled a bunch of other Ontario concerts, including their local debut at the Dayglo Abortions concert at the former Roosevelt Hotel on September 9th, and shows opening for the likes of The Misfits, Fuck The Facts, and Public Animal through 2014, with much more to come. Uniquely for their genre, they feature no guitar work in their shows or studio recordings, but their female-fronted hardcore punk blend comes through well even without! Picture Detroit, The Fury, and Die Mannequin blended together, and you'll have a good idea! Tracy's vocals have the right aggression and attitude for the material, Mark's bass work is solid and full enough to forget about the guitar's absence, and Mikey's drumming fits the songs well and gives a good rhythm!

Hardcore punk fans will have nothing to worry about with Cross Dog, who pack enough fast paced aggression and unique qualities to attract deserved attention, so don't miss them live! A solid amount of YouTube videos from their short live run are now online, but embedded below is this music video for their song "Black Hole", so give it a look, and stream and/or buy their debut album at their BandCamp page linked above!


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I hope you guys liked this month's out of town profile! Next month in this series, we're gonna look at a band who used to feature a Saultite (but is still active), that being Kitchener metal project Malicious Side Effect, whose guitarist at one point was Machines Dream/Blues Harvest's Keith Conway! That's all for today, but stay tuned for a new news post tomorrow! Thanks everyone!